None of them were to be found last night. Wellington Castillo, Julio Borbon and Cody Ransom got the only hits in yesterdays 1-0 drubbing by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“That’s (the same old) song and dance,” Dale Sveum said. “We get people on. We just can’t get ’em in.”

I think he’s mad.

Were they afraid of the water? or were they just sitting back enjoying A Shark chewing up some Pirates. Jeff Samardzija proved himself again. The Shark went seven innings and struck out eight. A great night’s work. Now, if everyone else showed up for work.

“That’s just electric stuff,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said of Samardzija. “He’s definitely been hard on us and to score early in the first and to only have two opportunities the rest of the game … and for them, the third inning, with the bases loaded, was the difference.”

It was those “Big Bats” that were afraid of the water in the third inning that kept the Cubs off of the scoreboard. A strikeout here, a pop up there, I might be a nice guy and I firmly stand on the side of the optimists out there, but one of the fundamentals in the game is to hit the ball, land on base, run the base and score. Yes, it’s that easy and the Cubs will remain at the bottom of the NL Central until they can find a way to get those guys on base and home.

“Early on we made some dumb mistakes that cost us big time,” Anthony Rizzo said. “We’ve been in close games all year. Now it’s about scratching runs across and keeping the lead.”

The Cubs try to get things going this afternoon and salvage something against the Pirates. Game time is 12:30 eastern. Edwin Jackson gets the ball.